Gujarat Assembly Election 2017: Vikas comes gliding on a seaplane

Gandhinagar: In a drama-laced finish, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s seaplane glided through the water on the Sabarmati riverfront in Ahmedabad, taking him to a Dharoi dam landing for a visit to the Ambaji temple, even as Congress president Rahul Gandhi homed into the city to pray at the Jagannath temple, bringing campaigning in the no-holds barred slugfest to an end. The last phase of polling takes place on December 14 and the results, along with those in Himachal Pradesh, will be declared on December 18.

Exuding confidence of a win, Gandhi said, ‘‘We are fighting this election as a united force and hope to form the government in Gujarat. Elections are won on a narrative. We have kept ours intact and steady. They were unable to form one. There is a ring of hollowness about the BJP”, he said while talking to media persons after the temple visit, adding that he would like to change the discourse of politics.

”It has become nasty, ugly and there is a lot of anger and angst. We prefer politics of love and compassion”. Rahul Gandhi said that his government would focus on balanced development, as against the skewed focus of the present one. Irrational economic policies of the BJP have damaged Gujarat. ‘‘We will abolish contract labour. Our record is there for all to see. We don’t talk. We waived farm loans worth Rs 75,000 crores during UPA-1.’’

The Gujarat elections will stand out as the most bitterly fought poll campaign with the Prime Minister hurling his might into the battle to retain control of  his home state, one which he ruled to become the longest serving chief minister before moving to Delhi in 2014 to helm the country.

The first election being fought after his departure has seen the Congress pose a serious challenge to the almost two decade long rule of the BJP, forcing the prime minister to virtually lead the state poll campaign.

If the prime minister was leading from the front, so was Rahul Gandhi for the Congress who found himself elevated to full charge of his party mid-way through the campaign. The prime minister had begun his campaigning almost six months ahead of the polls, increasing the frequency of his visits to his home state with every passing month. Gandhi, too, took to the road, criss-crossing regions on his stretched three-day long ”navsarjan yatras”.

For all, practically it is a straight fight between two diametrically opposite personalities, the one who kept aggressively smashing all around and the other who kept calmly lobbing it back to keep the narrative going. So, while Modi meandered from development to Hindutva with a ”tea-break” in between to venture into historical narratives, communal issues and even alleging Pakistani interference in Gujarat polls and attributing motives to one time constitutional entities, Rahul chose to challenge his more experienced rival on governance issues and lapses of his government.

This election will also stand out for making all other parties in the fray virtually irrelevant. At least this was what campaigning showed with rebel Congress leader Shankersinh Vaghela’s Janvikalp, the NCP, the AAP, the BSP and the SP being reduced to the margins. Little was heard about them during campaigning. Even AAP, which had earlier spoken of contesting all the 182 seats with their leader, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal coming to campaign, did not do so. It remained content with contesting a few seats only for registering their token presence.

“It is for the first time in an election that Modiji has not spoken about corruption…about farmers. There is (zabardast) tremendous undercurrent (against the BJP). Be it Patidars, OBCs, Dalits, farmers….all are angry. Public mood has undergone ‘zabardast’ change. The Congress will win the election….the results will be ‘zabardast’.”

“With the Govt of India and the Government of Gujarat working together, the strength rises manifold. This 1+1 is not 2 but 11 and together we will take Gujarat to new heights,’’ the Prime Minister tweeted, also saying, “Victory of BJP is a guarantee for a bright future.”

GLIDING INTO A CONTROVERSY

• VVIP security guidelines relaxed: No PM is allowed to fly in single engine aircraft
• PM’s Kodiak aircraft can fly only up to 10,000 feet, also does not have a pressurized cabin
• Route that sea plane took had never been tried out before
• Also, a foreign pilot flew the seaplane when such tasks are usually entrusted to the IAF

A PEEP INTO FUTURE?

• Seaplanes have potential to revolutionise transport, feels Nitin Gadkari. Since India has over five lakh waterbodies.
• Proposals being examined for introducing seaplanes in Yamuna and Ganga.
• Amphibious planes bring remote areasinto mainstream without high cost of building airports and runways